


Assaying Schnee Mettle

by Kiiratam



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24677122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Weiss has a chance meeting with an old friend.Takes place between Volumes 4 and 5. (My BMBLB fic index)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	Assaying Schnee Mettle

"Hello again!"

  
"Pyrrha! " Weiss didn't care who might be watching as she threw herself into her friend's arms.

  
After a moment, Pyrrha's arms tightened around her. "It's good to see you, Weiss. It's been too long."

  
Weiss really wanted to answer, to say that she'd been so busy, and she had tried to make time, but it was always one disaster after another - no, continuous overlapping disasters - but it was all she could just cling to Pyrrha and not break down in tears.

  
It lasted - Weiss didn't even know how long. She just had her face buried in Pyrrha's shoulder, smelling the leather and metal of her armor, the Dust and oil of her weapons, the flowery scent of her hair that Weiss had never been able to identify with absolute certainty...

  
But Pyrrha broke the embrace, and held Weiss out at arm's length, looking her up and down. "Is that a new dress?"

  
"Forget the dress! How are you?"

  
"Active Huntressing is a very difference experience from training and tournaments. But I enjoy it." Pyrrha made a face. "I just wish I didn't have to do a new photo-shoot every time I came back."

  
"Actually..." Weiss didn't want to give the impression that she'd engineered this meeting. She hadn't, she'd just made contingency plans. "On a whim, I had a team of lawyers look over your contract with Pumpkin Pete's, and they found a loophole."

  
Despite Weiss' best efforts, Pyrrha looked skeptical. "It's not the 'faking my death' one, is it? Jaune keeps coming up with schemes."

  
"Nothing like that. But I'm afraid it's quite technical, and I'm not sure _I_ completely understand it. How long are you here? I can schedule a meeting to discuss the possibilities."

  
"Not long enough for that, unfortunately."

  
"Oh." Weiss considered. "I can always have them write up a precis, and you can look it over when you have time."

  
Pyrrha nodded. "I would appreciate it. And thank you."

  
"Of course! What are friends for? "

  
"Usually not escaping onerous contractual obligations." Pyrrha pulled Weiss back onto the hug. "But you always were special."

  
Weiss was very grateful that Pyrrha couldn't see her face. Even if she could probably still feel the heat of Weiss' cheek on her shoulder.

  
Trying to compose herself, Weiss managed to clearly enunciate, "It means a lot to hear you say that."

  
"What are friends for?" Pyrrha eased back on the slightly crushing hug, and gave Weiss a smile that had just an edge of mischief. Weiss wasn't sure if Pyrrha had gotten that from Jaune or Nora, or if it was all her own.

  
Either way, it prompted an automatic sigh from Weiss.

  
At least Pyrrha didn't try to follow up on her ironic echo, asking instead, "How are Ruby and everyone else?"

  
Weiss dropped her eyes, suddenly unable to look at her friend. "I... I don't know. I haven't seen anyone else for months."

  
And Pyrrha didn't seem to have a response to that. The silence hurt.

  
"I wanted to, but no one reached out to me." And Weiss knew how petty and weak that sounded.

  
So did Pyrrha. "You're all the way up here. With all these SDC resources at your disposal. Maybe you should be the one reaching out."

  
Weiss tried to think of something that didn't sound like an excuse. _Wasn't_ an excuse.

  
"Do you want to talk about it?"

  
She _did_ , she just couldn't think of the words to use. Any words.

  
"You haven't had a falling out with anyone?"

  
"No." Weiss amended that. "Unless my absence has caused one."

  
"You can still fight? Myrtenaster is in good repair?'

  
"Yes." Though she _was_ more out of practice than she'd like to be. "And I've been working on developing my Semblance."

  
"That's good to hear." Pyrrha paused, and, with a look that Weiss interpreted as concern, asked, "Do you still want to be a Huntress?"

  
"Yes! I just-" Weiss pushed the words out, before she could stop to analyze them, to massage it into something she could say to Pyrrha. "-I have responsibilities here! I can't just leave my company unattended!"

  
"Why not?"

  
"Because it'll turn back into what my father made of it!"

  
Pyrrha looked at Weiss levelly."And you're the only thing preventing that."

  
"Yes!" Weiss took a deep breath, and tried to stop being quite so loud. "Yes. It needs a steady hand at the tiller, or it's going to fall back into the mud, and ruin even more peoples' lives. You've heard some of Blake's rants. She has more, I can assure you. And I _deserve_ them. My company _deserves_ them. We built a better world on bone-dust bricks and bloody mortar."

  
"What were the SDC's earnings last year?"

  
"Did you mean gross, net, my personal profit-"

  
Pyrrha's voice flattened. "How much did you make, Weiss?"

  
Weiss quoted the figure at her.

  
"What was Menagerie's GDP?"

  
This figure was smaller. Considerably smaller.

  
"And my net worth, for years of being a celebrity Huntress?"

  
Another significant step down - even though those were lifetime earnings, compared to one year.

  
"What about Ruby? Yang? _Blake_?"

  
The numbers were a lot less certain at this level. How much was the Xiao Long-Rose homestead worth? How much would anyone _actually_ pay for it? What was the resale sale on romance novels in indifferent condition? Should Bumblebee really be counted, if Yang would sooner lose an arm than sell her bike? ...Was the bounty on White Fang members included in Blake's net worth?

  
It didn't matter. In the end, it didn't magically increase their worth by multiple orders of magnitude.

  
Weiss tried to muster a defense. "It's important! I can't just leave all that lien in the care of the _board_."

  
"What is the point of lien, if it doesn't let you do what you want? Be who you want to be? Are you just keeping score?"

  
"I'm trying to use it for good!"

  
"And you're the only one that can do that?"

  
"It's _my_ company! It's _my_ responsibility!" Weiss was shouting again, and she didn't care. "I _have_ to do this!"

  
"You have friends." Pyrrha reached down and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly. "Please, let us help."

  
"What, you want to put _Ruby_ in charge of SDC Recon? Maybe make Blake the director of Human and Faunus Resources? They're not trained for it; I am. I know how to run my company."

  
Pyrrha thought for a moment, trying another angle of attack. "How do we fight giant Grimm?"

  
"Multiple angles of attack, trying to disable limbs to enable a killing blow."

  
"Fight them piece by piece."

  
"Yes?" She wasn't sure where Pyrrha was going with this.

  
"Have you considered... re-organizing your company? Gifting some branches to Menagerie as reparations? Breaking up into smaller, more local companies? Making it so the SDC isn't a thesis statement on how Mantle was right about the dangers of individuality? Only with economic dominance, instead of the Great War?"

  
"I... hadn't thought about it like that." Weiss tried to think about how she could manage such a break-up in a controlled fashion. By Pyrrha's example, the SDC was Vale in the wake of the Great War. But instead of trying to create a feeling of brotherhood, it was as if the King of Vale had declared himself Emperor of the World. And instead of the Huntress Academies, and their message of hope, it had been brutal oppression of Faunus. 

  
"Please, Weiss. I'm sure everyone misses you." Pyrrha pulled her back into a hug. "I miss you."

  
Weiss swallowed trying to keep her voice from breaking. "I'm right here, Pyrrha."

  
"But I have to go."

  
"So soon? You just got here!"

  
"I was only passing through, Weiss. We'll have to catch up later." Pyrrha gave her one last squeeze, and let go.

  
Weiss tried to cling onto her friend. "Please, just a little longer."

  
"I can't."

  
"Pyrrha, please! You've helped me so much in only a few minutes! Stay a day, and we'll have completely fixed the SDC by tomorrow!" Weiss knew her voice was getting frantic, but this was important! She needed Pyrrha to stay.

  
"I'm sorry, Weiss." Pyrrha started prying Weiss' hands loose - carefully, and irresistibly. "I'm out of time."

  
Weiss felt the tears spilling out, and didn't think that they would ever stop. "I need you! And all of my friends! Help me find them, please..."

  
"They're out there. And you can find them. You don't need my help."

  
"But-" Weiss' knees gave out, and she collapsed in front of Pyrrha. She tried to reach out, to cling to Pyrrha's leg, but she could barely see through her haze of tears. "-I miss you."

  
She felt her head being cradled, and Pyrrha lightly kissed the top of her head. "I'll see you later. Tell your sister hello for me."

  
The incongruity helped snap Weiss out of her grief. She had to take a few slow breaths before she could speak again, asking, "How do you know Winter?"

  
There was no response.

  
"Pyrrha?" Weiss looked up, all around, increasingly frantic. "Pyrrha? Pyrrha!"

  
No Pyrrha. 

  
Anywhere. 

  
Ever again.

* * *

  
Weiss woke up with tears in her eyes, and a corner of a cargo container digging into her ribs. She shifted, looking out the window of the cargo hauler. Not even dawn. The long flight to Mistral was barely begun.

  
Trying to find a comfortable position, Weiss closed her eyes again. She just had to get to Mistral, and find Winter. Winter would know what to do. At the very least, she'd be able to offer advice on no longer being the Schnee Dust Company heiress. Winter would have a plan. Weiss just had to reach her sister, and everything would be all right... no. Not everything. Not even Winter could fix everything that had gone wrong.

  
But it would be more right. And Weiss was going to try to make things righter.

  
Righter? ...Better. _Better_ was the word.

  
Weiss shifted, trying to fall back asleep. She was so tired, her brain was throwing out Ruby-isms. 

  
She missed Ruby too.

  
And Yang, and Blake, and Ren, and Nora. And even Jaune, though she definitely did _not_ miss his guitar.

  
Keeping all of her friends in mind, Weiss promised the images in her head that she'd see them again. Soon.

  
She eased back to sleep, lulled by the noise of the engine.


End file.
